Ireland

To say that what Randy and I are doing is surreal, is an understatement. Ever since my trip to Ireland in 2019, I have wanted to come back to Europe and explore more of its many countries. Somehow, it is magically happening. It’s wild to be walking the streets of Dublin again, this time with the LOML. I love how familiar the city is despite not having been here for six years. It feels comfortable… like going home.

We arrived the morning of Saturday, September the 6^th. A lovely young man who worked at the airport helped us retrieve our luggage, purchase a Leap Card – to be used with local transit, and get us into a cab bound for our hotel. After arriving at our hotel, we dropped off our bags and then headed out to explore - we had five hours before our room would be ready.

Within five minutes of hitting the streets, we came across a parade. It was an annual event to honour civil servants such as police officers, firemen and women, the coast guard, army, etc. Those in their camouflaged army greens with matching painted faces were very intense. There were a couple of bands too – a pipe band (bagpipes), and a drumming band. We felt very lucky to have stumbled across the parade. Hundreds of people lined the streets to pay their respect.

After watching the parade, we began to stroll the streets. Dublin is a very walkable city; it’s incredibly easy to get around and there are quite a few streets that are closed to traffic. The streets are alive with people, and you constantly hear languages from all over the world being spoken. We found our way to Grafton Street – one of the streets closed to traffic and full of shops – and into St. Stephen’s Green Park at the end. Just before entering the park, you pass through the beautiful Fusilier’s Arch. We only spent a few minutes exploring the park this time but returned to walk its perimeter another day.

Later, after a nap, we headed to a nearby pub called O’Shea’s. It’s literally less than a two- minute walk from our hotel. It was very busy, and we felt extremely fortunate to get a table front and centre. There was just one guy with his guitar and a foot device that acted like a drum. We enjoyed the music – me especially because as those of you who know me, I LOVE Celtic music. I sang along to all the songs I knew and was definitely in my happy place.

We finally headed back to our hotel to hit the hay and slept for 12 hours. When we got up and dressed in the morning, we went down to the River Liffey which runs through town. It has numerous bridges crossing it and is a neat part of the city. When in Dublin, I find that you can’t help but cross back and forth on a regular basis. I took Randy down to the Samuel Beckett Bridge (a.k.a. the Harp Bridge). You can see in the picture on Facebook why it’s also known as the Harp Bridge. We also made our way to a restaurant that I ate at a few times when I was here in 2019 called Lemon Jelly. They serve delicious breakfast food. It was packed and there was a line-up to get in. Thankfully, we only had to wait for about 10 minutes.

Randy and I love all the old building here in Dublin. There are a lot of old churches to look at with really cool architecture, and tonnes of pubs. It seems you can’t go anywhere without seeing a handful of them (even more so in the Temple Bar district). I have already consumed more beer in the few days I’ve been here than I would in a few months back home. My favourite is something called Smithwick’s Red. It is SO smooth.

Some interesting things I’ve seen around the city are that you can park whichever way you want on the street – going with the traffic or against. Weird. And when we went to the Spire, we saw a cool portal that shows a live video feed of people in other countries. You can wave to them because at each location there is a camera and a round viewing screen (the portal). I think that is the neatest idea! Every few minutes the video feed changes to another country. Also, there are horse drawn carriages that take people around the city. I love the sound of the beautiful horses’ hooves on the roads.

If you’ve seen my pictures on Facebook, you may have seen a yeti. Randy brought it along to take pictures with, in honour of his best friend who passed on in 2020. The yeti’s presence will be an ongoing theme throughout our travels.

We went back to O’Shea’s for more live music on Sunday. This pub has live music every night. There were two guys playing this time and they were even better than the fellow who played the night before. In the pub, the musicians asked where people were from. There were people from San Diego, Chicago, New York, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Brazil, and England.  Very cool!

We were going to go to the Guiness Storehouse, but it turned out the tickets were out of our price range, so we decided to give it a miss.

While the room in our hotel is a bit small, it has everything we need, so we are happy. Our duvet is warm and cozy, the towels are big and plush, and it has cool high-tech lighting. I can’t say enough about how friendly and accommodating the staff are. They really take excellent care of you here. Also, the location is perfect. We are very happy with our choice.

Today, Monday, we found an amazing fish ‘n chip shop. They wrap your order in newsprint, and you take it away and eat it on a bench or whatever works for you because there is no place to sit down inside. The serving was huge, easily enough for two people. The chips were cooked perfectly as was the fish. Mmmmm! We might have to return tomorrow! In case you ever make it to Dublin, the name of the shop is Leo Burdock’s.

We made our way to the Temple Bar district on Tuesday. I love it there. I love the cobblestones and all of the pubs that have live music. It is a big tourist area that many websites warn tourists to stay away from, but honestly, for me it is a highlight not to be missed.

Tonight (Tuesday) will most likely be our last night out in Dublin because we have to be up early Thursday to catch a flight to Berlin. We plan on heading back to O’Shea’s one last time to enjoy a hearty meal and more of the local music scene. And that is all I’m going to say about Dublin, my friends. What a great visit it’s been! I highly recommend a trip here and think that you’ll enjoy yourself if you ever make it over to Ireland.